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Our Story
It started out with Florenda, as a custom bra maker, realizing that most of the women that she was working with didn’t need “custom made bras”! Instead, what was missing was a specialty store combining fitting knowledge, client education and quality products with a wide size range to fit the majority of women.
From the sewing room, Esteem Lingerie was born. Angela came on board as co-owner, at the inception, and this mother-daughter duo have created and successfully grown Esteem Lingerie into a destination boutique with a national & international clientele.
Launching the Esteem Bra Fitting Academy was conceived in the early years of their business however it has taken 15 years for all of the pieces to come together. Their goal is for all lingerie boutiques to be profitable and be recognized for their professional fitting skills and service.
Our
Vision
We envision independant lingerie boutiques being profitable business enterprises that employ and train professionals in our industry
Angela O'Brian
Long before Angela became a professional bra fitter, she has a decade working in insurance developing her business skills in many areas. However, she found passion in developing a training department for an 80 million dollar product line. While growing Esteem Lingerie, she has continued to contract out as a business coach and facilitator. Angela’s specialty is helping businesses improve from their core foundations through analysis, process alignment and strategic planning. The academy is her dream come true, combining her skills as a trainer, facilitator and business coach with her love of bra fitting and operating a business in the lingerie industry.
Gilbert Guenette
Gilbert is a retired educator with a passion for photography, videography, and video editing. As an avid on-line educator and a life long learner, he has brought valuable transferrable skills in the development of our projects. As Florenda’s husband, he too is hands on with many aspects of Esteem Lingerie and Academy business.
Florenda Pickett
After spending many years working in various corporate careers, Florenda listened to her calling to become an entrepreneur and opened Esteem Lingerie with her daughter Angela. Her skills in sewing lead to an opportunity that has proven to be personally very satisfying. Combining the understanding of garment construction, process modeling and many other business skills, she has enjoyed many years serving clients in the lingerie business. Florenda brings in-depth knowledge of what is required to create and grow successfully in business, what to focus on, what to measure, and where and what to change to improve.
Eddie Rakowski
Eddie has been with both Esteem Lingerie and the Academy since the inception of both companies. He is our IT master who set up and maintains all of our technology. He has served as general contractor building our brick & mortar stores. He has even been known to count bras during inventory time! As Angela’s husband and the father to Esteem’s next generation, he is a little terrified of having teenage daughter’s and a wife who owns a lingerie shop!